Jump to content

Arkansas fires Chad Morris


Sandman

Recommended Posts

5 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

Well, on the contrary, Spike Dykes is kicking ass with Morris' recruits so it can happen. Stoops did it with Blakes recruits. But for every Dykes and Stoops, there are a gazillion Morris'. But programs have to take a chance. Either accept the status quo and keep shittiness and mediocrity forever, or roll the dice and hope you get a Stoops.

We all thought Herman was a good to great hire. Jury is definitely still out on that one.

You're assuming Bielema left behind a cast of players anywhere near the level that Blake left Stoops, Morris left, Dykes, etc. He didn't. Bielema left behind a tub of shit. What's that old saying? You are what you leave behind?

Edited by hpslugga
Link to comment
Share on other sites

45 minutes ago, hpslugga said:

What right do they have to expect those things that soon into an HC's tenure? Matter of fact, what right do they have to expect those things at all? Arkansas has never even come close to winning an SEC title. They've only been to the CCG 3 times since their arrival 27 years ago, and they were beaten by double digits every time with an average MOL of 23 points per game.

You are mis-reading my post. Chad Morris getting fired has nothing to do with conference contention, and I never said it did. It had to do with failing to even meet the bare minimum requirements at his job: winning some SEC games and not getting blown out by G5 opponents. Arkansas, being a program that expects to contend for conference championships, at a minimum expects not to lose 14 straight SEC games and get blown out by North Texas and Western Kentucky. You might be able to keep your job at Vanderbilt or Northwestern doing something like that; you can't at a program like Arkansas.

What right Arkansas has to expect conference championships at all is a different question and not one I particularly want to spend time defending. You can say they don't have a right to expect it, I don't care. Go convince an Arkansas fan that his expectations are wrong. 

Edited by SwanderedTalent
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

Well, on the contrary, Spike Dykes is kicking ass with Morris' recruits so it can happen. Stoops did it with Blakes recruits. But for every Dykes and Stoops, there are a gazillion Morris'. But programs have to take a chance. Either accept the status quo and keep shittiness and mediocrity forever, or roll the dice and hope you get a Stoops.

We all thought Herman was a good to great hire. Jury is definitely still out on that one.

it would be a miracle if Spike Dykes is kicking ass anywhere considering he is dead

Sonny is kicking ass at SMU though

  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, crash_davis said:

Well, on the contrary, Spike Dykes is kicking ass with Morris' recruits so it can happen. Stoops did it with Blakes recruits. But for every Dykes and Stoops, there are a gazillion Morris'. But programs have to take a chance. Either accept the status quo and keep shittiness and mediocrity forever, or roll the dice and hope you get a Stoops.

We all thought Herman was a good to great hire. Jury is definitely still out on that one.

Stoops brought in a lot of jucos his first few years, including star qb and Lb. Will give him and his staff credit, they did take what was there and change some positions around, giving guys a better opportunity to succeed, but most of the success came from the juco ranks. Just like Stoops learned at KState.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, mulletpelini said:

Because of the recruiting right?  Nebraska has always recruited Texas and still does.  10-15% max of the roster was Texas kids.  60-3 run had exactly 10% Texas kids.  So did all the teams before that, and all the teams after til now.  The move to B1G was a bad one, always has been, but it hasn't affected recruiting 10% of the roster from Texas.

Quality, not quantity.  One 3* last year out of 27 recruits.  Two 4*s for '18 out of 22 commits but one already transferred to a Texas school.  Three 3*s out of 23 total for '17.   None for '16.  And you guys supposed hired Riley at least in part because he had Texas recruiting connections.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, hpslugga said:

You're assuming Bielema left behind a cast of players anywhere near the level that Blake left Stoops, Morris left, Dykes, etc. He didn't. Bielema left behind a tub of shit. What's that old saying? You are what you leave behind?

Bielema left behind good enough players to beat San Jose State and Western Kentucky.  In fact one of them played QB for WKU on Saturday.

You're also greatly overestimating Chad's impact on the roster of this year's SMU squad.

Said it before, Morris will go down as the worst coach in SEC history.  What Arkansas should expect is a valid debate.  Whether they should expect better than "worst in history" isn't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Don Johnson said:

Bielema left behind good enough players to beat San Jose State and Western Kentucky.  In fact one of them played QB for WKU on Saturday.

You're also greatly overestimating Chad's impact on the roster of this year's SMU squad.

Said it before, Morris will go down as the worst coach in SEC history.  What Arkansas should expect is a valid debate.  Whether they should expect better than "worst in history" isn't.

I would agree. I don't think the SEC title is a realistic expectation for Arkansas (although there is that phrase "once in a blue moon"). But not getting blown out at home by North Texas State and Western Kentucky is a realistic expectation. Let's face it--they weren't even competitive in those two games. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Don Johnson said:

Bielema left behind good enough players to beat San Jose State and Western Kentucky.  In fact one of them played QB for WKU on Saturday.

You're also greatly overestimating Chad's impact on the roster of this year's SMU squad.

Said it before, Morris will go down as the worst coach in SEC history.  What Arkansas should expect is a valid debate.  Whether they should expect better than "worst in history" isn't.

drastic different offensive systems in just about every way.

come on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, NoName said:

drastic different offensive systems in just about every way.

come on.

Still, it's not the coach's job to just surrender for a couple of years. Morris was being paid serious money, and one of the expectations that goes with that is that you can transition systems without getting blown out at home by North Texas State and Western Kentucky. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Tired Horn said:

Still, it's not the coach's job to just surrender for a couple of years. Morris was being paid serious money, and one of the expectations that goes with that is that you can transition systems without getting blown out at home by North Texas State and Western Kentucky. 

he had his issues but Bert's system didn't work (smashmouth) and Morris runs a spread based system that is drastically different.

of any of the p5 hires in the last 3 or 4 years he of all of them deserved a year 0. HUGE differences in system, scheme, style and types of players needed on offense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Tired Horn said:

Still, it's not the coach's job to just surrender for a couple of years. Morris was being paid serious money, and one of the expectations that goes with that is that you can transition systems without getting blown out at home by North Texas State and Western Kentucky. 

And a terrible SJSU team at home.  We aren't talking about getting players needed to beat 4-5 Kentucky, 4-6 Ole Miss and 4-5 Miss St.  That wasn't even the expectation in year 2. But he should be able to take any roster and beat SJSU.

He gets a full pass for year 1.  Year 2?  He brought in a QB that has been in his system for almost 4 seasons now.  The rest of the guys have been in the system for 2 years now.  He's not the only guy to change styles at a program.  He's the only one to fail that miserably , though.  

The expectation was literally just be competitive.  He could've gone 4-8 (0-8) with a terrible OOC slate and still kept his job.  Maybe even 3-9.  Yurachek really didn't want to fire him.

Quote

 

“I think I look back to the second half of the Kentucky game. We fought really hard against Texas A&M. We played really well in the first half against Kentucky,” Yurachek said. “We probably did not have the lead we thought we should have had at half-time of that game. I thought our season really turned when we couldn’t close out that game and get that win against Kentucky and I thought at that point in time our student-athletes were starting to lose belief on if we could actually ever get over the hump with the current leadership.”

“I don’t know if he lost the support of his locker room,” Yurachek said. “I thought that the past couple of weeks, we weren’t competing the way we had earlier in the season. I think you go back to the Texas A&M game and how hard we competed in that game, and we gave ourselves a chance to win that game against a very good Texas A&M team in the fourth quarter. And even back to the Auburn game, I don’t think, Auburn and Alabama are great opponents, but I don’t think we played very well and I don’t think we competed very well in either one of those games, and we surely didn’t compete very well against Mississippi State or Western Kentucky this past Saturday.”

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, NoName said:

he had his issues but Bert's system didn't work (smashmouth) and Morris runs a spread based system that is drastically different.

of any of the p5 hires in the last 3 or 4 years he of all of them deserved a year 0. HUGE differences in system, scheme, style and types of players needed on offense.

I understand the difficulties, but what the school has to weigh is impact on the program's future. These first two years have been so bad, and some of the losses so extreme (see North Texas State and Western Kentucky), the question on the table had already shifted to whether Morris' ability to recruit had been crippled. If so, the program was in a death spiral. If Arkansas believed that was the case, then it had to stop the bleeding whether that's fair to Morris or not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Tired Horn said:

I understand the difficulties, but what the school has to weigh is impact on the program's future. These first two years have been so bad, and some of the losses so extreme (see North Texas State and Western Kentucky), the question on the table had already shifted to whether Morris' ability to recruit had been crippled. If so, the program was in a death spiral. If Arkansas believed that was the case, then it had to stop the bleeding whether that's fair to Morris or not.

Another way to ask that would be if it helped or hurt the program to bring Morris back in year 3 when the schedule is significantly more difficult.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, hpslugga said:

That nod goes to Jack Crowe, sir.

Even with the loss to The Citadel, 0-1 (0-0) career coaching an SEC team cant compete with 4-22 (0-14). 
 

What are your thoughts on Chandler?  I really liked him and was looking forward to seeing him play, but that was going to be a complete shitshow. He doesn’t need to follow dad to his next stop. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why Mike Leach trumps every realistic candidate that Arkansas could consider

Connor O'Gara | 15 hours ago

I took some heat, and rightfully so.

It was a tweet that, in the heat of the moment, was a bit short-sighted. It was poorly worded by me, and it wasn’t until the replies started rolling in that I realized there was a better way to phrase it.  Here was that tweet:

My thinking was, I truly don’t know what the list of candidates is going to turn out to be and here’s why. In this decade, Arkansas stole a successful coach from Wisconsin in Bret Bielema, who had hoped to bring his “beat you in the trenches” philosophy from Madison. That didn’t work in the SEC West. Arkansas then replaced him by going in the other direction by hiring the up-and-coming offensive mind from the Group of 5 who wanted speed and tempo to be the program’s calling card.

So, like, what’s next?

Selling anything resembling a repeat of either vision would be, in my opinion, difficult to a fan base that’s desperate just to be mediocre again.  

There are a whole bunch of possible candidates who fit one of those aforementioned descriptions. Mike Norvell from Memphis and Josh Heupel from UCF are both young, offensive-minded coaches from the AAC who would try and incorporate a lot of the things Chad Morris set out to, be ultimately failed in.

Then there’s Mike Leach.

The pirate-loving, quarterback-molding, attention-grabbing viral sensation of coach at Washington State who actually made less money than Morris did in 2019 (via USA Today). And while he would surely take a pretty penny to poach, he wouldn’t break the bank like, say, Gus Malzahn. Plus, there’s no guarantee that Malzahn is gone at season’s end.

Even if he was, though, I’d argue that Leach is a more proven offensive mind with lesser talent. Most recently, as everyone knows, Leach took a guy who Nick Saban was recruiting to be a 3rd-string quarterback as a grad transfer and turned him into the nation’s leading passer and top-5 vote-getter for the Heisman Trophy. How many Gardner Minshews could Leach get to come to Arkansas? Plenty.

We all need that:

And Leach did spend a decade in Texas, which is a pretty important area to be able to recruit in that job.

That’s the thing I’d like about Leach at Arkansas. It’s not just that it’d be a splashy hire for a fan base that could use some good news for once. Splashy hires don’t win football games and give a team an identity. What was Texas Tech’s identity before Leach got there? What about Washington State? Think about either of those programs and you think of Leach with his Air Raid offense, and obviously, it doesn’t hurt that the guy has 12 seasons of 8-plus wins during his 17 completed seasons as a head coach at those places.  

While the Cougars aren’t having the year some thought they would, they have the nation’s No. 1 passing offense by 54 yards per game. Barring a total collapse, Leach will have a top-10 passing offense for the 8th consecutive year, which spans the entire time he’s been at Washington State.

So why would Leach leave Pullman for Arkansas? Well, there’s obviously no guarantee of that. He’s been a wild card candidate at numerous places in recent memory.

That’s also a sign that Leach isn’t married to the idea of staying in Pullman forever. Bill Moos, AKA the guy who hired him out of his post-Texas Tech hiatus when he was riding a bike in Florida, left for the Nebraska athletic director position in 2017.

That’s when Leach became a critical cog in the mess that was the Tennessee coaching search. Emails showed then-Tennessee athletic director John Currie telling the Tennessee administration that Leach was going to take the job. But Currie was summoned back to Knoxville to be fired, and the Leach-to-Knoxville marriage died a sudden, painful death.

There’s always been a belief that Leach goes to places like Pullman and Lubbock because he’s an atypical personality who relishes the opportunity to say and do what he wants.

If he wants to teach a class called “Leadership Lessons in Insurgent Warfare and Football Strategies,” he’s gonna do it. If he wants to throw the ball 70 times a game, he’s gonna do it. If he wants to spend 10 minutes of his weekly availability explaining how to plan a wedding instead of breaking down the upcoming opponent, he’s gonna do it.

Nobody in college football goes to the beat of their own drum like Leach. That doesn’t fly everywhere. Considering how big of a mess Arkansas is right now, I’m guessing Hunter Yurachek would hand Leach the drum and march alongside him for eternity if he decided to come to Fayetteville.

Besides selling Leach on what would likely be an extremely favorable contract relative to the deal at WSU that paid him less than 10 SEC coaches in 2019, Leach might relish the opportunity to finally battle elite competition again (once upon a time in the mid-2000s the Big 12 was actually pretty good). I don’t know how much Arkansas’ recent $160 million stadium renovation would appeal to the non-materialistic Leach, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt.

It’d be fascinating to see if Leach did express interest in Arkansas. Perhaps the idea of a new challenge would appeal to him. Arkansas would certainly be a challenge. There’s no guarantee that Leach would start cranking out 8-win seasons overnight.

But if I’m Arkansas, I’m making Leach say “no” before I hitch my wagon to anybody else. Actually, Leach doesn’t seem like a wagon guy.

Get him on the first pirate ship to Fayetteville.

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/arkansas-football/why-mike-leach-trumps-every-realistic-candidate-that-arkansas-could-consider-2019/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/arkansas-football/arkansas-razorbacks-coaching-odds-betonline-sportsbook-chad-morris-2019/

Here are the debut odds when it comes to the Arkansas head coaching search:

Mike Norvell 2/1
Eliah Drinkwitz 3/1
Lane Kiffin 4/1
Bill Clark 5/1
Mike Leach 6/1
Sonny Dykes 6/1
Hugh Freeze 8/1
Gus Malzahn 12/1
Bobby Petrino 18/1
Houston Nutt 25/1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

they need to call Mark Richt

he is only 60, he can 100% recruit, he knows the SEC SEC SEC and he had teams ranked 12 out of 18 seasons in both polls and 14 out of 18 seasons in at least one poll and 7 seasons in the top 10 in both polls and 8 seasons in the top 10 in at least 1 poll and 3 seasons in the top 5

he won 1 more game than the prior guy at Miami and then one more game than that his second year and then had the 7-5 season and Miami does what Miami do and they self imploded and pretty much chopped his legs and head off and let a shit bad like manny take control and fuck their program for another decade or more

he made some lazy ass coordinator hires going to Miami and I don't think he would repeat that again

the pirate will get the shit kicked out of him in the SEC SEC SEC, but at least after that we could all stop hearing about how great he is and he can go back to some shitty program and average 8 wins a season against a schedule with 4 members of the walking dead on it every year and manage to have at least one inexcusable loss every season

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Don Johnson said:

Even with the loss to The Citadel, 0-1 (0-0) career coaching an SEC team cant compete with 4-22 (0-14). 
 

What are your thoughts on Chandler?  I really liked him and was looking forward to seeing him play, but that was going to be a complete shitshow. He doesn’t need to follow dad to his next stop. 

He didn’t just lose to the Citadel, he lost 10-3 to them and with a new offensive coordinator named Greg Davis. That whole situation spoke poorly not only of Crowe, but of the athletic department in general because they not only tolerated the hire, not only did Davis survive after Crowe’s dismissal for a full season, they not only opted to keep him on for another one, they did whatever they could to prevent Joe Kines from beating him to death with his bare hands. Now perhaps Frank Broyles was a soothsayer who kept Davis breathing because he knew he’d end up at Texas one day and he wanted to stick it to UT as a final revenge, but the point is Crowe is the one who started the whole bloody mess!!!

As to Chandler, I’ve always liked the kid. If anything I’d say as a negative is that he can be a bit careless with the ball, but I like the combination of his template, his accuracy and his wheels. If I had to rank the HP QB’s during Randy Allen’s tenure, I’d place him in seconds ahead of JSJ but behind Stanford. I’m pretty sure his dad’s firing will steer him away from Arkansas, but I don’t know if Chad will have a gig by signing day. I’m pretty sure he won’t have an HC job. Perhaps he’ll go back to being an OC, but I just don’t see that for 2020, thus Chandler will need to consider only his own future when deciding.

Edited by hpslugga
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, ButtFumble said:

they need to call Mark Richt

he is only 60, he can 100% recruit, he knows the SEC SEC SEC and he had teams ranked 12 out of 18 seasons in both polls and 14 out of 18 seasons in at least one poll and 7 seasons in the top 10 in both polls and 8 seasons in the top 10 in at least 1 poll and 3 seasons in the top 5

he won 1 more game than the prior guy at Miami and then one more game than that his second year and then had the 7-5 season and Miami does what Miami do and they self imploded and pretty much chopped his legs and head off and let a shit bad like manny take control and fuck their program for another decade or more

he made some lazy ass coordinator hires going to Miami and I don't think he would repeat that again

the pirate will get the shit kicked out of him in the SEC SEC SEC, but at least after that we could all stop hearing about how great he is and he can go back to some shitty program and average 8 wins a season against a schedule with 4 members of the walking dead on it every year and manage to have at least one inexcusable loss every season

Too much Tequila??  Richt recently had health issues, and has the personality of wallpaper... Richt isn't even on life support as an Arky coaching candidate.

giphy.gif

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, NoName said:

he had his issues but Bert's system didn't work (smashmouth) and Morris runs a spread based system that is drastically different.

of any of the p5 hires in the last 3 or 4 years he of all of them deserved a year 0. HUGE differences in system, scheme, style and types of players needed on offense.

This is still the dumbest arguement in the history of football. Any coach can be competitive with good players that fit a system he wants to run

But as a coach you're paid to get the most out of the players you have on the roster. So if you don't have the GD players to fit running the wishbone then don't run the GD wishbone. The coach should adjust to his players, not the other way around.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Dewey said:

Either Lane Kiffen or that high school coach who refuses to punt.

Not just punt... Pulaski doesn't kick XPs, FGs, or even KOs. 

Well... they do kick off, but only onside kicks. I dunno if they ever give up safeties, where you pretty much have to kick the ball (place or punt), but other than that... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/12/2019 at 11:38 AM, hpslugga said:

What right do they have to expect those things that soon into an HC's tenure? Matter of fact, what right do they have to expect those things at all? Arkansas has never even come close to winning an SEC title. They've only been to the CCG 3 times since their arrival 27 years ago, and they were beaten by double digits every time with an average MOL of 23 points per game.

If you look at the Pac-12 for example, Wilcox and Smith have both at least brought dignity back quickly to historically mediocre-to-poor programs (at least before the injury bug crushed Cal this year). Morris' players seemed like they haaaaated him based on their play on the field.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, RoyalBevo21 said:

This is still the dumbest arguement in the history of football. Any coach can be competitive with good players that fit a system he wants to run

But as a coach you're paid to get the most out of the players you have on the roster. So if you don't have the GD players to fit running the wishbone then don't run the GD wishbone. The coach should adjust to his players, not the other way around.

literally one of the reasons he was brought in was because BB's system wasn't working and because he ran a drastically different spread-based system.

i get what you are saying but it is wrong and they made a change to a drastically different system for a reason.

you wouldn't expect them to bring in jeff monken and for him to change from some kind of option based system to something involving the shotgun.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, RoyalBevo21 said:

This is still the dumbest arguement in the history of football. Any coach can be competitive with good players that fit a system he wants to run

But as a coach you're paid to get the most out of the players you have on the roster. So if you don't have the GD players to fit running the wishbone then don't run the GD wishbone. The coach should adjust to his players, not the other way around.

I generally agree with that statement in the case of Bert at Arky, his linemen were drastically different from what Morris needed.  Bert's O-linemen were literally all over 350.  One was like 6'10", if I remember right.  They were massive and slow.  They couldn't pass block at all and really couldn't run block, either.  They were just big for the sake of being big.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, RoyalBevo21 said:

This is still the dumbest arguement in the history of football. Any coach can be competitive with good players that fit a system he wants to run

But as a coach you're paid to get the most out of the players you have on the roster. So if you don't have the GD players to fit running the wishbone then don't run the GD wishbone. The coach should adjust to his players, not the other way around.

A coach can run whatever system he gotdam well pleases... but an SEC coach had better not be losing to San Jose and getting blown out by directional universities at home. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, Jkwellborn said:


Say it again so the people in the back can hear. Plus, doesn’t Dykes run a similar system to what was already at SMU?

Dykes took over for Morris and has done pretty well... might be interesting to see if he can do it again??

But if I'm Sonny, I probably don't want to coach in the SEC West for Arkansas... pretty tough gig.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...